A problem encountered in either competitive or instructional tennis is the tendency of the balls, after striking the net, to settle on the playing surface and thus constitute a hazard or annoyance to the players. For example, in instructional drilling, a large number of balls are used and as a serve, volley or ground stroke strikes the net, the ball will bounce back toward the player or will settle on the court, presenting a hazard to the player and causing the player to interrupt the instruction to deflect the ball out of the playing surface, or to retrieve the ball and place it in his pocket.
In competitive singles, a fault serve which strikes the net will tend to roll outwardly across the court, forcing the server to discontinue his service, go forward and remove the grounded ball from the court. Thus, the service ball striking the net and rolling across the floor provides a distraction as well as a potential hazard to the server.
In competitive doubles, a netted serve is normally retrieved by the server's partner who is at the net. This again causes a distraction to play and a potential hazard if the grounded ball is not retrieved by the server's partner or by the server.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,615,715 discloses a tennis net construction having a pocket located adjacent the lower end of each side of the net. When a tennis ball being propelled with a substantial force strikes the net, the net will belly out and the ball will fall downwardly into the pocket where it is retained. However, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 2,615,715 requires a special net construction and is not completely dependable in that a ball striking the net with a minimum force will not belly the net out sufficiently to enable the ball to be received within the pocket.
Therefore, there has been a need for an inexpensive, portable device to be associated with a tennis net for diverting and collecting balls striking the net.